


Not Again

by panotaku95



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-18
Updated: 2017-07-18
Packaged: 2018-12-03 19:12:25
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,887
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11538669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/panotaku95/pseuds/panotaku95
Summary: Meet Lance: a college Junior obsessed with stars, planets, and aliens, who may or may not be going a little bit crazy.The story of regaining lost memories that were never even his to begin with?





	Not Again

"Ugh. Whose idea was it to take an 8 am class this semester? Scratch that. Who invented college classes before noon?" Lance asked his friend Katie on their way to said early-bird class. "It's just so," he clenched his fist and closed his eyes before adding, "cruel." 

 

"Oh my God, you're such a fucking meme, Lance." Katie stifled a yawn, her morning coffee not yet hitting her system. It wouldn't take long, though; she was only 5 feet tall and she had just downed a large black coffee with a shot of espresso. 

 

"Well, you know me, Pidge. I aim to please." Lance shot her a wink. This time Katie didn't try to hide her facial expression as she rolled her eyes and groaned aloud. 

 

"Laaance," she whined. "You are literally the worst at picking nicknames! It's been almost three years. Can't I have a new one? Pidge doesn't even make sense!" 

 

Lance looked at his small companion. Today she was wearing a green T-shirt with light grey skinny jeans. Her long brown hair was pulled up into a bun on top of her head and she was wearing her thick-rimmed plano glasses again. She was looking a lot like she did the day they met. 

 

_It was their first day of classes freshman year. They both ended up in the same statistics class to get the math prerequisites for their respective majors; his being astronomy and hers being astrophysics. Lance turned on the charm as he opened the door for the short woman, but she scoffed and rolled her eyes, unimpressed. Lance took a quick liking to her fiesty attitude. Not in a creepy way, he just definitely knew he wanted to be her friend. He was drawn to her in a way he couldn't quite put to words. He followed her into the classroom and sat next to her. Right away he went to introduce himself._  

 

_"Hey, um. My name is Lance. I'm a freshman here! Uh, what's your name?" He was tentative but he tried to stay respectful. He really did want her to be his new pal._  

 

_The girl before him eyed him curiously, but nonetheless opened her mouth to respond. Before words could escape her lips, however, Lance yelled out, "Pidge!"_  

 

_She blinked several times at him, slowly taking in his sudden outburst. "Well, I was going to say my name is Katie and I'm also a freshman, but what the actual fuck is a Pidge?"_  

 

_Lance had the decency to blush. He tried to think of why that name had even come to him in the first place. Looking at the woman before him, he felt a sense of nostalgia. Like they had been friends for a very long time and that they had been through a lot together. An image of her with short hair crept into his mind for some reason and he stifled a laugh at how perfect that fit this stranger's persona._  

 

_Remembering she was still there, and that he was now blatantly staring at her, he stammered a reply. "This...is gonna sound really...weird. But like, I'm having a dejavu moment, or something. And like that name just popped into my head. And I was thinking it suited you, anyway. But...um, I can call you Katie if you'd prefer."_  

 

_Katie started to snicker beside him. "Oh my God. You're a weird one, aren't you?" Lance looked like he had just been slapped across the face. She continued, "Nah, it's all good. You're pretty interesting, Lance. If it floats your boat you can call me Pidge." As she finished her sentence she pushed her glasses up._  

 

_Again he felt a twinge of recognition, not uncomfortable, but unexpected. He smiled a wide grin back at her and said, "Thanks, Pidge! It's nice to meet you."_  

 

"Well, if the shoe fits," he smirked at Pidge again, swiftly receiving an elbow to the ribs in response. Dramatically, he exclaimed, "Pidge! You wound me!" while draping the back of his hand across his forehead. "Besides, if we're talking about things that don't make sense the first item on the agenda should be your glasses. They're fake. Why do you wear them?" 

 

Pidge looked up at Lance, who happened to be a whole foot and a half taller than her. A slight smirk came to her mouth as her eyes narrowed playfully. "Because bitches love glasses." 

 

Lance stopped dead in his tracks, jaw dropped and eyes wide. Pidge kept on walking so for a solid five seconds he was staring at her retreating form before snapping out of it and jogging to catch back up. "Warn a brother before you say shit like that, man!" Pidge just chuckled as the two entered the science building. 

 

Lance and Pidge both spent most of their time in this edifice. Because of their similar majors, they shared a lot of classes during the first two years of college. Now that they were juniors, the amount of classes they both had together was significantly smaller, but their 8 am class Monday, Wednesday, and Friday was shared. The class was Quantum Mechanics, which was boring to say the least. Hence the literal gallons of caffiene the duo consumed on a daily basis. Even though the class was dense and difficult, both Lance and Pidge were excited to learn the material. Pidge was the ace of the class and Lance wasn't too far behind. Everything came so easily to his tiny companion whereas he struggled quite a bit, so Pidge would often tutor Lance and help him understand the material. Which was awesome, because their professor, Dr. Iverson, didn't know how to teach for shit. 

 

They sat down in their desks at exactly 8 am. Their professor didn't even spare a second before launching into the material. 

 

"Okay you little heathens. Time to talk about partial wave expansion..." 

 

*** 

 

After their first class, Lance and Pidge went their separate ways. Lance's other class of the day wasn't until the afternoon so he decided to grab some food in between classes. Maybe he'd study or something. _Pfft_. 

 

Nona University had arguably one of the best cafs he'd ever seen. That may or may not have been one of the deciding factors that led him to pursue a degree there. Today the caf was serving a pasta bar (with shrimp as the special protein of the day), pizza, sushi, and a roast beef meal with mashed potatoes and freshly steamed asparagus. Lance went for the shrimp pasta, mostly because his other friend was the chef for that section today. 

 

As he carried his tray in his right hand over to the pasta section, he hollered out, "Hunk!" waving his free arm to get the other's attention. 

 

When Hunk heard his name, he quickly scanned the crowded caf before spotting Lance's messy brown hair and returning a winning smile and a two-fingered salute. Hunk, a large and sturdy built guy, was already in the process of making two other students' pasta bowls. His long dark brown hair was pulled back in a ponytail and he was sporting his signature yellow head-band to keep his bangs back. Secretly, Lance guessed that his friend just didn't want to have to wear a hairnet so this was a healthy compromise. The dude absolutely hated the color yellow, but the headband had been a gift from his girlfriend back home. Their high school colors were black and yellow, and being the perfect guy he was, he couldn't refuse her. Didn't explain why he continued to wear it when she wasn't around but Lance didn't push those kind of things. It was a shame his friend didn't wear the color more often; it really did look stunning on him. Or was fitting more the right word? 

 

Lance looked down at the ingredients to choose from on the counter and after several seconds went by he simply told his friend, "As long as there's some shrimp in there, I don't care what you do. You always make it taste so good!" 

 

Hunk just smiled wide and set to work, mixing whole grain noodles with a tomato basil sauce. He added in the shrimp, some broccoli bits, and mushrooms (to Lance's utter dismay). His face must have given him away because Hunk provided him a soft, "Don't be like that. They're good for you. And I promise you won't even taste them." He ended with a wink in Lance's direction. 

 

Sighing, Lance responded. "You know I'm weak to your charms. I guess I have no choice but to trust you with my life." The two students in line before him were handed their bowls. They looked at the bromance displayed between the chef and the lanky Cuban boy, shrugged their shoulders, and carried on. Honestly, they had probably seen way weirder shit on a Wednesday lunch time before that. It was Nona U after all. 

 

"When's your lunch break?" Lance asks as Hunk hands him his plate. 

 

"I can take off right now seeing as the line has dwindled down." 

 

"Awesome. I'll go save us a spot!" 

 

Lance winded his way through the caf, paying the employee at the register. He looked about the dining hall and spotted a two-seater not too far away. Taking long strides across the dining hall, he claimed the table before any other students could take it from him. Students here were ruthless and there really weren't enough tables for all the people who ate on campus. 

 

A couple minutes later, Hunk joined Lance with a heaping serving of the roast beef meal. "Now who do I have to bribe to get bigger meals in this place?!" Lance asked, exasperated. 

 

Hunk chuckled. "I just have my ways." 

 

"I see that." 

 

The two boys caught up over their meal. Hunk was in the engineering program so they didn't have any classes together. It was by chance they had English together their sophomore year and became quick friends after that. Even before they spoke, Lance assumed they'd hit it off right away. He also guessed that Hunk was a big softie, overprotective to a fault and the sweetest human he would ever meet. He hadn't been proven wrong. 

 

They discussed new video games coming out that year and what conventions were approaching and whether they were planning on going to that party over the weekend. The answer was no. Obviously they had better things to do...like play DND until the wee hours of morning. God, they were such nerds. 

 

The atmosphere was peaceful and it drew Lance back into the comfort of his mind. He daydreamed about giant spaceships and beautiful princesses and his friends and him kicking purple furries' asses. They were all flying around in giant metal lions, too, which was...something else. It was decidedly strange, though. He saw it all so vividly. Lance always thought that brains couldn't make images appear in people's minds if they hadn't already witnessed it before. Maybe he watched a funky sci-fi film recently. 

 

The characters fighting with him, besides the easily identifiable Hunk and Pidge, seemed familiar to him for some reason. There was a tall buff dude with a tuft of white hair accenting his otherwise militaristic undercut. There was a beautiful brown chick with stark white hair that reached her butt. There was a red-headed man with a humungous ginger mustache. And then there was a skinny guy with a sword and a permanent scowl on his face. They were all wearing battle suits it appeared, which seemed to fit in with the aesthetic of robocats and aliens. 

 

He was brought back to reality when a hand rested on his shoulder. "Yoohoo. Earth to Lance." Hunk was staring at him from across the table. He had eaten all his food and Lance didn't have to glance down to know that his was half gone at best. 

 

"Sorry," he shrugged lightly. "I was distracted. Happens from time to time. Did I miss anything?" 

 

"Uh, not really. I was just saying that I might have saved up enough money to pay for Shay to come up here for a visit. I know she'd like to meet you and Pidge!" 

 

Lance giggled at his friend's use of his clever nickname for the missing member of their trio. "And I'm sure that little gremlin would be excited to meet her, too. You said she's taking a dendrology class right now, right? Pidge fucking loves trees. I bet they could literally gush about them for hours." 

 

"It would be great if she took a liking to you all! That's for sure." 

 

After slurping down the last of his pasta, Lance gathered both his and Hunk's trays and walked to the dish return, the gentle giant following behind him. Hunk looked down at the watch at his wrist. "Shit. Sorry, Lance, but I gotta get back to work." He started to walk back towards the kitchen. "It was great catching up, man! Don't be a stranger! I'll see you this weekend." 

 

"See ya!" Lance waved goodbye as he trudged to his next class. He had officially wasted enough time and had even filled up his tummy. He was having a good day. 

 

He walked into the lecture hall for his special topics seminar. This semester the focus was on extraterrestrial life forms. Lance couldn't even contain how cool it was for him. It hadn't even been two weeks into the semester and he already learned that there were over 100 billion galaxies besides the Milky Way that might have planets condusive for life. There very well could be more developed planets millions of light-years from him and that fascinated him to no end. 

 

Settling into his spot in the third row, he took out his notebook and began looking over his notes. He was so absorbed in his work that he almost didn't notice the boy in front of him sit down. He glanced up briefly at the light sound the chair made as it scraped backwards but quickly returned his attention to his chicken scratch on the page before him. 

 

_Wait a minute._ Lance looked back up at the boy before him. Why hadn't he noticed this guy before? Had he been sitting in front of him this whole time and he just now realized it? _I'd recognize that mullet anywhere._ He hesitantly reached out his hand and placed it on the man. Expectantly, the other jerked in surprise and turned to look at him. Lance's cerulean blue eyes were greeted with violet ones. The recognition hit Lance like a brick wall and he steeled himself before letting slip, "Keith?" 

 

The guy before him flinched again, his face pulling a confused look as his brows drew together. For a brief second his eyes appeared to widen a bit, but Lance could have been mistaken. Either way, it wasn't the scowl that Lance was anticipating... _interesting_. "Uh, yeah. But who the hell are you?" 

 

_Holy, dejavu._ "Uh, the name's Lance...," he noticed his hand was still locked onto Keith's shoulder. Dropping his hand he rubbed it frantically with his other before adding, "Sorry. I just...sorry." He continued to stand there, cheeks on fire, the burning gaze Keith directed towards him too intense. 

 

Keith slowly turned back in his chair. He picked up his bag and slid down two desks to get away from Lance and the awkward tension that radiated from him. Absolutely mortified, Lance stuffed his notebook back into his backpack and ran out the door past his professor, Dr. Arus. 

 

He ran and ran and ran, never stopping until he reached his apartment building. He rushed through the doors, alarming the desk attendant but not enough to rouse her from her position. He hurried to the stairs, taking them two at a time until he reached the fourth floor. He scurried to his studio room, throwing open the door and falling onto his bed as soon as he crossed the threshold. He grabbed for his pillow and nearly suffocated himself by squishing it onto his face. Lance rolled back and forth screaming into his pillow for several minutes. When he finally calmed down enough, he layed on his back, staring at the glow-in-the-dark stickers he put on his cieling. They helped him regulate his breathing. 

 

_What the fuck did I just do? I don't even know that guy! I've never been more embarrassed in my life._  

 

Lance couldn't help but think about the boy named Keith. He had seen him in his daydream earlier wearing a red battle suit. His heart beat fast just thinking about him, a blush staining his cheeks, and he had this strange feeling that they had met before. But that was impossible, right? And this attraction that he obviously had for the mullet man was way too much to have just met each other. 

 

Something odd was happening. He could tell that much. 

 

Lance suddenly became aware of how weary he was after that whole debacle and his traversing across campus. He closed his eyes and tried not think of Keith, to obviously no avail. One solitary thought crept into his head as he welcomed the sweet release that slumber always brought him. 

 

_Funny. I don't remember seeing his finger-less gloves just now._  

 

Where did that come from? 

 

Fuck.

 


End file.
